Every now and then the thought occurs, “It would be really convenient to be able to talk to passengers, other riders, or get GPS directions while wearing my helmet…” Here the Sena and Scala Rider G4 are part of the newer generation of Bluetooth helmet systems. I don’t run across people who use them, so I appreciate seeing this little video just to get a sense of the size of these things. They seem clunky to me, like the CB radio versions of the past. It makes sense that the people who I usually see wearing these are people with clunky bikes, large cruisers with trunk space I could park a scooter in.

If you really want Bluetooth, but don’t want the (slightly) bulky attachments, you can always go the built-in route. Dainese, Vemar, O Neal all have nice helmets with BT built in.  Or if you can wear in-ear headphones, and mainly want to get GPS directoins with your helmet on, you can wear any helmet you like with this non-motorcycle specific BT device.

Should you really be having phone conversations while riding? Of course not.  But imagine being able to tour the twisties with a passenger and say, “lean left…” “hard right coming up.”  Or ride with a couple of other riders and say, “watch out there’s gravel on the turn” or “Let’s pull over I need a restroom break!”  Aha.  See?  Practical eh?  Just don’t give your boss your cell phone number.

Related posts:

1. Quick helmet tip…
2. Time for an open faced helmet?
3. SHARP Helmet Ratings

Here’s the silly video for the week… I saw this while trying to get my knee down on my Aeron… Although in all seriousness, when I started riding, all those years of bad posture started working in my favor.

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1. How Biking Has Changed My Life

Motorcycling (as a competitive sport) is interesting because, as Laia Sainz says in her interview: “it’s more about skill than strength…” and women aren’t necessarily at a disadvantage. We will probably never have a female quarterback – men and women are just built differently. And as pepe le pew would say “Viva la difference!” But will there be a female Valentino Rossi? There’s actually no reason why not…

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1. Two Guys on a Motorcycle
2. You ride like a 16 yr old girl…
3. A NY Moment: Clip from “Motorcycle Women”

Toyota (and Audi) are not the only ones with unintended acceleration issues while braking. Newer riders are prone to grabbing the brakes in such a way that they roll on the throttle at the same time. This could be a problem that makes panic braking something to really panic over. One scooter shop owner said that this was the number one problem that he saw in novice riders getting on his bikes… They mean to grab the brakes, but grab the lever in such a way that they open the throttle at the same time.

One reason I think this tends to happen (more often) with some bikes is because some non-adjustable brake levers are too far from the handle to accommodate smaller hands. If you have to lift your wrist to get your fingers around the brake lever (with your thumb on the throttle), simply squeezing your hand into a fist will wind up rolling on the throttle… [Yes a diagram would be nice here - but no go] So if this tends to happen to you a lot – but not as often to other people, it’s because your hand is too small for the lever placement. If you can adjust the lever, great, but if not, I think you can actually learn to correct this problem with proper technique.

What’s the proper braking technique? Braking is something you really need to get a “feel” for – but here’s the basic idea, and you can work it out for yourself on your bike…

The key is you need to think of the brakes as an extension of the throttle. With the throttle off, your fingers should be able to rest on the brake lever. As you roll on the throttle, your fingers can no longer reach the brake lever, but that’s okay… The way you slow the bike is by gradually closing the throttle and then gradually braking, as though it’s part of a single device. Does that make sense?

But shouldn’t I “cover” (rest my fingers over) the brakes at all times? When you were first learning to ride, or taking the MSF, you weren’t opening the throttle more than a few degrees, so covering the brakes “at all times” was not a problem – but as you go faster and open the throttle more – there are throttle positions in which you won’t be able to reach the brake lever… This is especially true with more distant brake levers, and smaller hands. That’s actually okay – because when you have the throttle open 75% of the way, there’s no situation in which you should hit the front brake before rolling off the throttle… Being prepared to brake means having a couple of fingers ready to grab the brake lever as it comes in reach while rolling off the throttle.

Related posts:

1. Tips on Braking and Downshifting
2. Riding Skills: Hard Braking
3. How To Use The Rear Brake

Here’s my two cents: You need a full faced helmet in NY.  If you ride anywhere along the path of fast moving trucks, or at highway speeds, the kinds of road debris that get kicked up will do a number to your pores, and possible your health if you’re wearing an open faced helmet.  But…if you’re mainly riding around town, cruising with traffic and enjoying the nice weather, an open faced helmet is more comfortable, looks nicer, and is easier for newbie passengers to fit.

But before you take the plunge into open helmet territory, you should be informed of the risks.  Nearly a quarter of accidents where helmets are involved resulted in impact to the front of the helmet.  That means that even though you may have a strong reflexive instinct to protect your face – at the speeds in which you will be travelling, your reflexes won’t be enough to protect your face…

But open helmets excel where full faced helmets fall short.  Full helmets are great at keeping your head warm in the winter, and cool in the summer as long as you’re moving at a decent pace.  But slow down to Manhattan traffic speeds and the full face helmet starts to get stuffy.  Also a full faced helmet is great when there’s lots of road debris…  I remember once a truck in front of me grazed the top of its load on a metal structure overhead raining down glowing bits of shrapnel onto my face…lucky for me I wear a full faced helmet.  But riding a through a park or Riverside Drive on a nice spring day, you get a fuller experience with an open helmet.

So if you ride in a war zone, you need a full face – and much of NY is like a war zone, so you need to own and wear one here…  But if you know you’re just making quick trips in town, to the park, somewhere local, at speeds that you won’t have bugs smushed on your face – then by all means, wear the open faced helmet.

Related posts:

1. Which helmet is best for me?
2. Quick helmet tip…
3. BT for your helmet?

If someone said that to you, and the girl they were talking about was Elena Myers, then that would be a compliment…because this girl can fly!

After you get over the novelty of how old she is (actually most of the racers starting out in AMA are a similar age), this is a pretty good track chase video on its own right. Good lines, good body position, she makes it look too easy. Keep an eye out for her in motogp in a few years!

Check out an interview with Elena after the jump…

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2. Women who ride…
3. A ride-worthy electric?

I’m usually fine keeping my phone in the (underseat) “trunk” but what do you do when you’re going someplace new and have to pull over and check Google Maps, or the directions in an email?  The people at iBike Rider think you should strap it to your wrist inspector gadget style.

It’s handy, and it’s waterproof.  What I like about this is you don’t have to use it with your phone, you can put your EZPass in there or GPS, or handwritten directions.  If you do use your iPhone, the touchscreen still works through the plastic, but you will need to pull over and remove a glove…  Or you can use a sausage – no kidding!  But I digress.

This case is a tad pricey at $57.43.  But anything iphone tends to be pricey.  You can buy it from SoEasyGPS.  Or, if you don’t care so much about it being waterproof, or you’re not sure if you’ll like using it, there are a lot of cheaper alternatives…like this one that you can buy wherever they sell iPhone cases.  Cheers!  If any of you have tried this out let us know what you think!

The good news about finding a good helmet is that there are many types to choose from, many brands, and therefore one that will offer great protection and comfort in the style you want.  The bad news is that it can get complicated figuring out which is right for you…  So here’s a little guide to help untangle all the information out there…

Why bother?  In some studies, 80% of all motorcycle fatalities (in 2006) were due to head injuries.  Your helmet is the most important safety device you wear!  So for this post I want to talk about full faced helmets because they give you more protection than the open faced kind – and because even if you prefer an open faced helmet around town, every rider (even scooter riders) should at least own a full faced helmet for higher speed rides.

Of course a helmet should fit right…and having a cool looking helmet will make you go faster and safer (no not really). But other than that there are three or four certifications you need to be aware of… Let’s untangle those and you will know everything you need to know about motorcycle helmets…

First there is the DOT standard, technically known as the FMVSS 218 (Federal Motor Vehicle 218).  This is the minimum standard of helmet protection required by the US government.  In order to be legal for use on the road, a helmet has to be DOT approved.  The way you know is there is a sticker on the back of every DOT approved helmet.  And although it is a minimum requirement for helmets, it’s proven to be a good standard.  Now if helmet certifications stopped here, life would be simple…

Second there is the ECE 22.05 standard.  This is the “Economic Community of Europe” standard for helmets similar to the DOT.  But the ECE 22.05 tests helmets at higher speeds so that it’s a harder test for a helmet to pass.  The bottom line is: all ECE 22.05 helmets pass the DOT standard (but not the other way around), and it tests for a higher level of safety.  So if you could choose between an ECE (and DOT) approved helmet or a helmet that’s only DOT approved, the ECE helmet is the one to go with.

Third there is the SNELL M2005 and the newer M2010… These were developed for “high performance” helmets to guarantee the highest level of safety possible from a helmet… One of the features of their “more rigorous” testing was the helmet would have to be able to take two impacts to the same spot in order to pass.  Many DOT (and ECE) approved helmets would not be able to absorb a second blow at high speeds.  The result is that SNELL helmets would have to be harder and absorb less impact in order to survive two impacts.

Although this sounded like a good idea at first, studies have found that SNELL helmets don’t offer good levels of protection – mainly because they expose the head to too many g-forces.  ”Softer,” DOT-only helmets provided greater protection because they absorbed more of the impact and transmitted fewer g-forces.  In addition the way SNELL tested helmets (assuming everyone’s head weighed the same, rather than assuming smaller heads would weigh less) meant that even greater g-forces would be passed on to wearers of smaller sizes.

As a result people like Hugh Hurt (of the Hurt Report), James Newman (former director of the Snell Foundation), no longer think the SNELL certification is a good one.  So recently Snell issued a new standard (the M2010) allowing for “softer” helmets in order to pass the minimum g-force requirements of the ECE 22.05 standard.  The word is not in yet on whether this new 2010 standard is any better…

Are you thoroughly confused yet?  The bottom line for me is: DOT and ECE 22.05 = good…  DOT and SNELL = either bad or questionable (in the case of the newer 2010 Snell standard).  Unfortunately for some track day riders, some tracks (like Laguna Seca) still require SNELL rated helmets… In which case, I’d recommend doing your best to get a newer M2010 Snell rated helmet.

ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD…SHARP Helmet Rating System: And we saved the best for last.  In the UK there is an even newer helmet rating system.  It differs from all the others in that it doesn’t just give pass or fail, but 1 to 5 star ratings…  It also tests for different kinds of impacts to different parts of the helmet, in all its helmet sizes, using different sized (and weighted) dummy heads.  You can pretty much guess what I personally think of this helmet system (hint: the link is to the right).  The down side to this rating system is that it’s UK based so not all the helmets they test are available in the US – and vice versa.  Some helmets, like some HJC helmets, have different model numbers in the UK…but others just aren’t available or hard to find.  But their list of tested helmets is growing every month.  And we’ve mentioned it before on this blog, the highest rated helmets are not always the most expensive – and some of the most expensive helmets (ahem Arai-Shoei) don’t get five stars… Which means there’s really no reason your next helmet shouldn’t have a four or five star rating…

Hope that helps!

Related posts:

1. SHARP Helmet Ratings
2. Moto-Myth #4: An $800 head?
3. Time for an open faced helmet?

It’s amazing how pretty and warm a cold day through a not-particularly pretty part of Flushing can appear… It’s a snow day here, so I thought I’d try out some video editing freeware from Pinnacle, and splice together some video from my Monday afternoon commute… along with a soundtrack from Yann Tiersen.

Related posts:

1. C-c-c-cold weather riding…
2. Top 5 Spring Riding Hazards
3. Top 5 Cold Riding Tips

One practice I recommend to riders in need of seat time is to put together a quick route around their neighborhood.  It could be anywhere from 2 miles to 20 miles and take 30-60 minutes (around NY).  Mix in some local roads and some highway or parkway.  Stopping and starting is fine, just make sure you have a good number of turns that you don’t have to stop for…

This way, even if you don’t have the time to go anywhere far, you can get out for an hour and do a quick lap or two.  In the process you can learn where all the driveways are, blind intersections and traffic dangers.  You can also get to know where the manhole covers are around turns, where salt or gravel tends to collect, and ways to deal with them.  I like to make sure my route takes me by a parking lot where I can do some figure-8’s (and on some bikes drag the pegs).

No, it’s not the same as a day at the track, or a ride up to Bear Mountain or anywhere interesting – but it also doesn’t take as much time… And at the same time keeps some of your skills up while giving you opportunities to work on new ones.

So QUESTION: Do you have a route? How many miles is it?  What’s it like?  And what kinds of things do you work on when you’re on it?

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